Rocket – R Is For Rocket

How many young bands can brag about opening for the likes of Ride, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sunny Day Real Estate before releasing their debut album? Right from the outset, Los Angeles quartet Rocket seemed primed for an alt-rock explosion. But the question of whether or not they can distinguish themselves from being opening act lifers is quelled with the glistening album opener, “The Choice,” a psychedelic barnstormer that immediately raises one’s expectations too high. It’s just that good.

That’s not to say that tracks like “Act Like Your Title” and “One Million” don’t surge with a reverb-drenched punch, sitting somewhere between the angst of a nineties Seattle band and the sleek wash of sound of Silversun Pickups. With the blissful noise of “Pretending,” they draw a cleaner, livelier sound—to reference the aforementioned Ride again, it’s akin to Going Blank Again.

Rocket shows far more sophisticated rhythmic interplay than some of their shoegaze-leaning contemporaries on this debut. And if they keep writing propulsive, muscular anthems like the title track, they’re rocketing to the top.

R Is For Rocket is out now via Transgressive Records.